Marking the 20th anniversary of the demo release of MMMBop, Zac, Taylor, and Isaac Hanson have unpacked the many mysteries surrounding the hit single, revealing its darker lyrical meaning and how its creative process was similar to that of Picasso’s. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, however, is the realisation that we have all been incorrectly phrasing the choruses complex “syncopation”.

Awopbopaloomopalopbombom! Sometimes the best lyrics mean nothing at all

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When asked whether or not the band had heard any decent covers of the song, Taylor, the song’s lead singer, told Vulture: “I gotta be honest: no.”

“People can’t sing the chorus right,” Isaac added, “Most of the time they syncopate it wrong.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the band describe the way in which the song came to fruition, tentatively drawing ties between their studio process and that of Pablo Picasso. “There’s this documentary about Picasso that I love, and it shows him actually painting, the whole process, and, not to compare us to Picasso, but to see all the iterations from the start to finish, several times you could be like, “That’s great!,” but he kept changing and changing until he thought it was done,” says Taylor. “And with the song, it required those two elements to become what it was. I think that might be a terrible thing for me to reference. But I do find it really interesting to watch the twists and turns you take from concept to finish.”

The band, who have released six studio albums since their four-time platinum debut Middle of Nowhere, also discuss the darker themes that are hidden within the song – and how their “relatively serious thoughts” interweaved into the track, such as the unpredictability of love, as heard on lyrics such as: “In an mmmbop they’re gone/ Oh yeah oh / In an mmmbop they’re gone,” and “You have so many relationships in this life / Only one or two will last / You go through so much pain and strife / You turn your back and they’re gone so fast.”

“It’s not exactly sunshine and rainbows,” says Taylor, “but it’s packaged in a way that it’s looking for the moral to the story.”

“The staying power of that song is about the fact that it’s more than it looks like at first glance. That hook is what gets you in, but what’s below that is what keeps you there.

MMMBop was nominated for two Grammys at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards in February 1998, and reached No 1 in 27 countries. The group are currently working on new music, with a new album potentially scheduled for next year.